'Songwriters Summit' in Mansfield this weekend

Tuesday

Feb 26, 2013 at 12:01 AMFeb 26, 2013 at 7:31 PM

Besides being great songwriters, Michael Troy and Martin Swinger share something else. Each has been a winner of the Rose Garden Performing Songwriter Competition, a prestigious songwriting event held for the past 20 years at the Mansfield music venue. And the two will return to share the Rose Garden Coffeehouse stage on Saturday, March 2 at 8 p.m.

Besides being great songwriters, Michael Troy and Martin Swinger share something else. Each has been a winner of the Rose Garden Performing Songwriter Competition, a prestigious songwriting event held for the past 20 years at the Mansfield music venue. And the two will return to share the Rose Garden Coffeehouse stage on Saturday, March 2 at 8 p.m.

Michael Troy has done many things in his life - raise four daughters; work as a mill worker, fisherman in Fall River, laborer, and carpenter - but he’s always come back to his first love... music. And his music career took a big jump when, in 1998, he got up the nerve to trek to Cambridge’s renowned Club Passim to work the open mics. Later that year, he was offered a spot as opener for Bill Staines and his career began to take off.

In 2002, Troy shyly entered the Rose Garden Coffeehouse Songwriting competition and won first place over 60 other entries. The cash prize and publicity bump from this helped move him towards the high level of admiration and respect he now enjoys. His rough-hewn voice matches the songs he sings and writes... stories of mills shutting down, a childhood friend who met an early demise, and the hurt and hope of life’s experiences. That talent was recognized in 2010 when he won the highly regarded Kerrville (Texas) Folk Festival New Song Competition.

Martin Swinger comes from a much different background. Down in Georgia, he was singing solos in public in first grade and writing songs by his teens. He formed his first band in high school and wrote the music for some college theatrical productions. In more recent years, Martin moved to Maine, produced an original cable television concert series “Alive! from Johnson Hall,” and has been featured in Maine governor Angus King’s “Arts in the Capitol” series. He won the Rose Garden’s Performing Songwriter Competition in 2012.

Swinger’s songs span Alzheimer’s, autism, oysters, dyslexic theology, and the lively adventures of Betty Boop and Buddha – lyrically and melodically illustrating the variety of human emotions in powerful story-songs. Surprising, humorous, intimate, outrageous, universal - each song sung with the skill and panache of a seasoned performer.

The Songwriters Summit at the Rose Garden on Saturday, March 2 will begin at 8 p.m. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and attendees are urged to arrive early for best seating. The $16 tickets may be purchased in advance at www.rosegardenfolk.com and a limited number may be available at the door the evening of the show.